Data Demands Grow, Companies Fight To Keep Up. In Its Second Annual Survey, EVault Asked 650 IT Professionals Across Five Countries About Their Data Management Habits. (Graphic: Business Wire)

In its second-annual survey released today, EVault, Inc., a Seagate Company (NASDAQ:STX), revealed that half of all organizations surveyed in the USA, UK, France, Germany, and the Netherlands say they are managing more data now than they were a year ago, and 70 percent of those same organizations expect that the volumes of data they manage will only continue to climb. Faced with these realities, the survey found that within the group of IT leaders not currently benefiting from a hybrid (onsite and offsite) data protection environment, more than 60 percent are either planning or considering one. Cloud backup and storage, a key component of hybrid environments, is now seen as an important way to manage the ever-increasing volumes of data. 66 percent of IT people surveyed said their organizations will increase the amount of data they store in the cloud by 2015. The US is most bullish about storing data in the cloud, with 85 percent of American IT leaders responding they would increase cloud usage in the next few years.

Within organizations already benefiting from a hybrid data protection environment, 74 percent report they needed the increased flexibility a hybrid approach brings to their data management infrastructure, which becomes more and more important as data volumes increase. Improved data security was why 66 percent moved from their old backup and recovery tools to an onsite and offsite data protection solution. 57 percent of all IT leaders surveyed prefer their hybrid solution because their rapidly growing business critical data requires protection against natural disaster and theft.

“The EVault community leads the industry in embracing and promoting onsite, cloud, and cloud-connected – also known as hybrid – data protection solutions to help organizations protect and access their critical data. EVault’s uniquely integrated ecosystem of EVault software, SaaS, managed services, and appliances help ensure customers maintain business continuity in multi-platform, multi-site environments,” said Terry Cunningham, president and general manager of EVault. “This year’s survey demonstrates that data protection, disaster recovery, and other storage services optimized to perform in a distributed environment, supported by a secure, reliable cloud storage infrastructure is what customers want as they look to strategies to manage volumes of data that will only continue to climb.”

IT Decision-Makers Under Stress with the Data Management Burden

EVault’s 2011 survey revealed some startling admissions from IT decision-makers. Chief among these were the 17 percent who would rather have their teeth pulled without using painkillers than have to inform their bosses of a critical data loss. A year later, it’s apparent that IT teams are still anxious when it comes to sharing bad news with company leadership.

24 percent of respondents in the survey admitted to not telling their CEOs they are not backing up all files, especially those on mobile devices. The stress of data management continues to burden IT decision-makers; 38 percent admit they worry about their data not being saved securely or whether any work has been backed up at all. This worry is well-founded. In 2011, 31 percent of organizations had experienced data loss within the last 12 months — on average twice, but in 2012 this has increased to 53 percent experiencing a loss.

“The IT insight section of our annual survey always reveals fascinating details about the personalities inside the IT department, and the pressures they are under. They continue to struggle with data loss, management of data growth, keeping up-to-date with new technologies, and are now grappling with the reality of employees using personal devices at work, and how that further impacts their data growth and management issues,” Cunningham said.

Mobile Devices—A Growing Concern

While year-over-year and country-by-country figures of employees storing company data on their phones held steady at 22 percent (in the US it is up to 32 percent), an overwhelming majority of IT leaders — 94 percent — have concerns about the mix of personal and corporate data used by employees on their own mobile devices. 67 percent of IT leaders surveyed expressed concerns about the retention and security of their data, and its possible deletion from a mobile device. Meanwhile, an additional 57 percent highlighted worries about the legal issues that could stem from the BYOD (bring your own device) trend.

IT leaders in this study are just starting to address the issue. While almost all of the organizations surveyed – 96 percent – have at least some employees who have mobile devices they use for work, and 24 percent of IT leaders themselves admit to having lost data from a mobile device, only 28 percent of organizations surveyed currently have a disaster recovery plan which includes mobile devices. IT appears ready to start addressing this problem, with a large number of respondents believing they would benefit from implementing some policy controls. For example, 55 percent of those surveyed believe their organization would benefit from administrative controls enabling the ability to delete data from any mobile device possessing company data.

”As the proliferation of devices and their functionality increases so does the likelihood that employees will become more reliant on them for company use. Without a conscious plan for protecting data on mobile devices, companies’ data management strategies will have more holes than Swiss cheese,” Cunningham said. “It is great news that 32 percent of the IT leaders surveyed are planning to implement a strategy to manage data loss from mobile devices including laptops, smartphones and tablets, and that 43 percent are planning or considering a disaster recovery plan for 2013. We predict that this percentage will be even greater in the next three years.”

For a visual representation of the survey, see the accompanying infographic.

More Survey Analysis to Come

Over the coming weeks and months EVault will release further insights and analysis from its second-annual cloud-connected backup and recovery survey. EVault anticipates a more detailed view of each country including a comparing and contrasting of leaders and laggards across key areas like disaster recovery and data backup, BYOD and CIO insights. EVault will also break down responses from the survey’s SMB and large enterprise organizations as well as some vertical industries highlighted in the research.

EVault commissioned Vanson Bourne, an independent research company, to conduct this study of trends in data storage and related services. Between October and November of 2012, Vanson Bourne interviewed 650 IT decision-makers from companies ranging in size from 100 to 3,000+ employees. Respondents represented a range of industries (financial services, retail, healthcare, legal, education, and government) in multiple countries (USA, UK, France, Germany, and the Netherlands).